Now some supporters of the American pastor, who's been detained in Iran for more than a year, are accusing U.S. officials of betraying Abedini by signing off on an agreement that doesn't get him out of prison.

"We were across the table from the Iranians, and we did not bring home Americans. To me that's a tragedy and that's outrageous," said Jay Sekulow, the chief counsel of the American Center for Law and Justice, which represents Abedini's family in the United States.

While analysts debated the nuclear agreement's pros and cons, Abedini's wife, Naghmeh, said she was trying to comfort her two young children.

It was the only issue other than Iran's nuclear program that Obama brought up, White House Deputy National Security Adviser Tony Blinken said.

"He asked for Rouhani's assistance in freeing them and allowing them to return to the United States, and Rouhani said that he would look into it," Blinken said.

Asked why Abedini's fate wasn't part of the interim nuclear deal with Iran, National Security Council spokeswoman Caitlin Hayden said the Geneva talks "focused exclusively on nuclear issues."

White House officials told CNN that negotiations for Abedini and other detained Americans in Iran are ongoing.

"We've been repeatedly clear that we're calling on Iran to release them," Blinken said. "The president' raised it, we will continue to raise it, and we hope to see them return home."

One analyst told CNN Monday that focusing on nuclear policy was the right approach for the talks.

"In any negotiation, you've got to decide how much you're going to try to accomplish, and just tackling all the dimensions of the nuclear agreement is ambition enough," said Richard Haas, president of the Council on Foreign Relations.

But Naghmeah Abedini and her attorney argued that officials could have done more, making the Americans' release a precondition for any sanctions relief.

"It is disheartening and discouraging that fighting for religious freedom and wrongful imprisonment of a U.S. citizen is no longer a priority for a country that was founded on such values," she said in a written statement to CNN.

Saeed Abedini converted to Christianity from Islam and then became a pastor, living in Boise, Idaho. He regularly made trips to Iran and was working on a government-approved orphanage when he was arrested last year, his family said.

He was on a bus crossing from Turkey into Iran last summer when immigration officials took away his passport. He was later put under house arrest. Authorities took him to the notorious Evin prison in September 2012 while he awaited trial.

In January a judge from the Islamic Republic's Revolutionary Court sentenced him to eight years in prison.